Panflute

Well, I guess that is my Metallica collection completed.

Helicopters and motorbikes weren't, no. But at the same time you couldn't even climb over walls yet in Vice City. Replaying the 3D trilogy on Xbox made me realize how limited Vice City was.

Oh, this should be fun, although I dunno how unpopular these opinions are as I don't read gaming websites or talk about games a lot: - Bioshock 2 is better than Bioshock 1 by a considerable distance. - The story of Bioshock is not all that great as it fails to integrate the mundanity of gameplay into the storytelling, which loses a lot of its gravitas as a result. Cryostasis is a game that did this much better. - While 'streamlining' is often seen as a bad thing in games as it dumbs the gameplay down, I view it as a good way to get rid of archaic gameplay elements, especially in RPGs. - Mario Kart 64, while enjoyable, was not a good game even for its time. - If we exclude the portable games, GTA: Vice City is the worst 3D instalment in the series as it failed to add anything to the gameplay. And not being able to swim in a map that's 50% water? - Niko Bellic is the worst GTA protagonist. - Far Cry 5 is the best Far Cry game.

I do think Metallica's progress as musicians is more logical and gradual than "they made metal and then sold out." I'm totally derailing the topic, but the way I see it is this: A lot of their style changes can be pinned on both line-up changes and the way rock/metal evolved at the time. The first two albums relied heavily on Dave Mustaine's stylistic influence, and when that started to wane, Cliff Burton had a huge impact artistically. Even if his songwriting contribution on Master of Puppets wasn't as big as on Ride the Lightning, there was still this sense of 'if Cliff doesn't like it, it ain't happening'; at least that is what Kirk Hammett later said. After Burton's death, Metallica ceased to be a full band and it was largely Hetfield and Ulrich (mainly the latter) just telling the others what to do. Hence why And Justice For All sounds like ass production-wise; they had no one left who could step in and just say 'no, that idea sucks', which is why Metallica albums also became longer and longer with seemingly no one there to direct/edit things into a coherent, strong unit. Fortunately, AFJA is also an album where Metallica really challenge themselves in terms of composition and playing, so it's still a very creative album. They're really trying to prove themselves as musicians, and you get the idea they're punching a little over their weight, which I find very exciting. With the Black Album, they had little left to prove as musicians and dumbed everything down to a large degree, which I still find a very logical thing to do for an artist; do the opposite of what you did on your previous album, lest you become a one-trick pony. As an added bonus, Bob Rock proved to be the guy who not only delivered what I consider to be the best production in pretty much any album, but also wasn't afraid to confront Hetfield and Ulrich creatively. There is a scene in that documentary they made of the recording process where Ulrich tries to pull the same trick as on AFJA and tells the producer (Bob Rock in this case) to turn the other instruments down, and Bob Rock's just like "we tried that and it sounded like shit, so no." After that album, Rock seemingly got too close to the band, and Metallica entered the pretty much inevitable midlife crisis phase of their careers, so nothing they put out since then held anywhere near the weight of their first 5 albums. Master of Puppets is imo the first Metallica album that contains filler, or at least contains clear stand-out tracks that carry the entire album. If I had to make a top 5 it'd look like... 1. Ride the Lightning 2. Kill 'Em All 3. Master of Puppets 4/5. And Justice For All/Black Album AFJA and Black Album just really depend on my mood and if I'm more able to tune out the bad production/mixing of the former or the simplistic songwriting of the latter.

I realized I could do an entire long-read of opinions on Metallica. Such a lovely band to feel conflicted about.

In terms of pure exclusives, N64. Gamecube was great too and had a lot of hidden gems. I mostly got Xbox to play multiplatform games but I have PC for most of those. I will dock points off for the N64's horrid controller, though.

Pass. It has already been tainted by the smell of cat food.

All the worse when it ruins potentially good food!

Plain cheese, mozzarella, quattro formaggi or mushroom. If I absolutely had to pick one to eat for the rest of my life, it would be plain cheese. Tuna or seafood in general on pizza sounds absolutely disgusting.

I guess it differs. I'm not really aware of their critical reception beyond their reputation, but growing up I had a lot of friends who were into metal, punk and other alternative stuff, and I remember them being venerated by many.

Economy's good so he will get re-elected. The approval rating will come into play when the Democrats field an exceptionally strong opponent, but they won't.

As it looks now that missile attack is probably the best thing that could've happened. Iran saves face in front of its own people by making some rockets hitting an airbase without any casualties, which allows America to not react and let hem off with some bombastic tweets by the president.

Honestly can't make out if he talks so camp because he's gay or just because he's German.

What do you mean 'secretly'?

Rey kills Dumbledore